Brian Kagen pick: “In Time and Out of It,” by Stefan Stenudd from aikiweb.com

“Aikido practice is so devoted to the here and now that we have a hard time thinking farther ahead than to the next step of the technique we are involved in at the moment. That’s as it should be. When the mind leaves the present, we risk stumbling on the aikido technique and losing control of it.
Leaving the tatami, though, we can safely indulge in thoughts about the past as well as the future. Those two directions are twins. It is by the former that we can get some glimpse of the latter. The present has no baring on what was and what will be. It is stuck in the moment, and gone the next. That limit is also its charm, and the reason for its capacity.”

Brian Kagen is an avid web researcher with a particular interest in martial arts. His training background includes both judo and aikido. He has contributed hundreds of article links over the years for AJ readers.